"Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly" by Gail Carson Levine

Writing. For those of us who enjoy doing it, writing can be magical. We can create our own little worlds on paper and fill them with characters from our own imaginations.  

When our hands touch the keyboard or our pen touches the paper, anything becomes possible.

But sometimes we get stuck. We don’t know what to write. Our characters don’t feel real. We get bored with the story.

In Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly award winning author Gail Carson Levine shares tips and techniques she’s learned in her career. She admits that she often gets stuck or bored or completely frustrated with her characters.

With fun examples and ideas, she gives you advice on how to get over these humps and discusses what stories are made of. From this book I learned what a good beginning to a story often looks like, tips on how to wrap up a story, and the best way to write a conversation.

But the thing that impressed me most about this book was that it wasn’t boring. It didn’t feel like a typical how-to book. It was actually extremely fun and enjoyable to read.

Really, though, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Levine’s always been able to grab my attention with her writing.

Through this book you might just learn how to grab your reader’s attention too.

Note:

Some of what Levine shares is just her opinion. Whenever you are listening to advice about writing, try to keep in mind that quite a bit of it is probably just opinion. Don’t discard the advice, however: listen and consider it.

Just know that writing is not like math. There is no exact formula, no “one” answer to a problem. Everyone has his or her own unique writing style.

With math, two plus two always equals four and if you dispute this people will think you’re crazy.

With writing, one person will tell you one thing and someone else will tell you something entirely different. Who’s in the right?

They might both be in the right. Their advice might be equally viable. In the end, you have to decide what your own unique style will look like.

Will you use the first person’s advice or the second person’s advice?

You decide. You’re the writer.     

Should your sentences by long or short?  

You decide. You’re the writer.

Should you use first-person point of view or third-person? Which is better?
You decide. You’re the writer.

Book Review of "The Wave" by Todd Strasser

The students in Mr. Ross’ high school history class have asked him some questions he’s not sure how to answer: why did anyone follow Hitler? Why did people join the Nazi party? How come the Germans denied any knowledge of Hitler’s death camps?
At last, Mr. Ross comes up with an idea. Without telling his students what he’s up to, he organizes a movement structured after Nazi ideals and invites students to join it. He calls it “The Wave.” Their slogan is, “Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action!” He hopes that this movement will give them some sort of an idea of how it was like to live in Nazi Germany.

To most people, The Wave seems harmless enough. In less than a week, nearly every student in the high school has joined it. Slowly but steadily however, things start to get out of hand. What began as a simple classroom experiment has grown and taken on a life of its own, leaving in its wake brainwashed students…and a teacher who discovers that power is more seductive than he thought.

This book is closely based on a true event that occurred in a high-school in 1969.

When I researched what actually happened in the course of the real-life experiment, I discovered that the major points of the experiment were identical to what is portrayed in “The Wave.” In a only a few days, a fascist movement took over an entire high-school.

To me this book is a chilling reminder that brainwashing and the desire for power can take hold of anyone: even people born in the freedom-loving United States.

To find out how the experiment ended and what came of it, I encourage you to read “The Wave.”

Note to Parents: Due to some mild language and the book’s serious content, I would not recommend it for children.